I still needed to kill a Kobold for Food and Water Packages, and I didn’t want to be late meeting Claire.
A few blocks later, I found one — quick fight, clean kill. I looted it and hurried toward our meeting spot.
Claire was already there, a bright smile lighting her face.
“Danny! Are you okay?”
I smiled back. “Yeah. I am now.”
“It sounded so scary,” she said. “I wonder why we never hear it — the monsters, I mean. Before the System, we always heard cars, sirens…”
I thought about it. “Maybe the Home Base Token made our places soundproof. We do have other protections, so it’d make sense.”
“Good point.”
We fell quiet for a while. Neither of us seemed sure what to say about the things in the night. I knew we’d have to face them sooner or later — but not yet.
“I saw Jason again,” I said. “He told me about the neighbour between him and you — a kid named Malik. Sixteen. Jason’s been keeping an eye on him.”
“Poor kid,” she murmured. “All alone. I’ll keep an eye out too. You should give my contact details to Jason — he can pass them along to Malik.”
“I’d been meaning to ask if that was okay, but things just got… crazy.”
“I know what you mean.” She smiled faintly. “So — you’re doing the second part of your quest tomorrow?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Get it over with. You?”
“I’ll level up tomorrow, I’m sure,” she said. “Then I’ll rest a bit — and maybe do the second part of the quest in a day or two… or three.”
I smiled at her. “That sounds about right. Oh — Jason finished the first, or maybe the second, part of his quest, but I didn’t ask what it was. It’d be interesting to figure out how all these quests fit together.”
“Yeah,” she said thoughtfully. “World Tree Quest and Mana Well Construction Quest. I wonder if they’re connected somehow — or just completely separate.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. “Something Jason mentioned stuck with me — he said the System wants us to interact. The back barriers between of area, yours, and probably all the ones touching mine can’t be seen through. Maybe that’s how the System forces us to connect.”
Claire nodded slowly, and I continued. “If that’s true — if it really wants us to work together — then maybe our quests are meant to connect too. Different pieces of one larger goal.”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
“What quest did Jordy get again? Ley… something?”
“Leyline Stabilization Quest.”
“Yeah, that sounds Mana- or energy-related somehow.”
“Yeah. We could ask the System about it…”
We looked at each other — then, at the same time, shook our heads.
“Nah,” I said. “We’ll figure it out.”
“Maybe later,” she agreed. “Not now.”
My eyes lit up, and I took my Arcane Entertainment Crystal out, waving it around.
“What is that?” Claire asked dubiously.
I grinned. “Oh, this? This—” I gave it a little flourish “—is my Arcane Entertainment Crystal. Picture an old-school drive-in, a surround-sound theater, and a holo-display mashed together — but powered by mana.”
“Oh, and you gave me a hard time about my music and pictures…”
I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck. “Yeah, I did judge you a bit… but hey, I get bored at night. I don’t want to go to sleep too early, and I can’t practice all the time. You—”
She grinned, cutting me off. “Relax, I’m over it. Just teasing you.” Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. “Now tell me more. How does that thing work? And how do I get one? Because I want one.”
I smirked, holding up the crystal between us. “Well, first off — it’s not just a fancy rock. It’s powered by ambient mana, self-sustaining, and it can pull up about fifteen percent of Earth’s entire media archive. Movies, shows, maybe even some concerts if you think about the right ones.”
Claire’s eyebrows shot up. “Nice, so how do I make my own?”
I smirked. “Simple—well, kind of. You’ll need one Advanced Transformation Shard and ten Basic Transformation Shards. Then grab the right mix of tech: a smart TV or monitor for the display, a surround sound setup for the audio, something like a Wi-Fi router for data connectivity, maybe a VR headset to handle the 3D interface, and a few symbolic things — DVDs, streaming gift cards, a remote control. It’s not about the hardware itself; it’s about the concept the System reads when you merge them.”
“I’m making one for myself tomorrow,” Claire said with a grin. “I so miss my movies.”
We ended up talking for a while about our favorites — old classics, action flicks, and the kind of comfort movies you could watch a hundred times and still smile at. For a few minutes, it almost felt normal again.
As she spoke, I caught myself thinking about something else. Maybe I should try to make a crystal for music too. I’d never been much of a music person before, but Claire loved it. The way her face lit up when she talked about songs she missed made me want to understand that a little better.
“Good luck tomorrow — and let me know when you’re done.”
“I will. Have a good night, and we’ll talk tomorrow evening.”
I waved to her and started back home. The streets were quiet; the city wrapped in that strange stillness the System had left behind. I smiled to myself. A shower, then a movie — that sounded perfect.
Dodging Kobolds was a becoming a habit but I kept reminding myself that one misstep and death followed, so I kept vigilant as well.
I quickly showered and make myself comfortable in my bed. I took out the Crystal and held it above my palm.
It hummed softly — a faint vibration against my skin — then lifted on its own, hovering a few inches in the air. Light spilled from its core, threads of mana weaving outward like liquid glass. The crystal spun slowly, stabilizing itself as a circular interface bloomed around it — translucent, hovering in the air like a ring of misty symbols and faint, drifting text.
As I focused, the floating symbols shimmered — then shifted, forming faint thumbnail images and titles spinning lazily around the crystal. Old movie posters. Familiar names. So many I hadn’t thought about in years.
The interface didn’t use buttons or menus. It reacted to thought and emotion — the faint tug of curiosity or nostalgia was enough to make a title drift forward. I thought of something comforting, something I’d watched a dozen times before when life was simple.
The crystal responded instantly.
The light thickened into color and sound, and suddenly the air in front of me filled with a living projection — not flat, but deep and full, like stepping through a memory. The room’s mana field adjusted automatically, reshaping the acoustics. The surround illusion enveloped me; it felt like being inside the movie.
I took out my dinner out and just relaxed.